A shamed police officer is facing jail after he admitted inflicting shocking cruelty on a very young child.

Christopher Hamilton was a serving officer with Northumbria Police when he subjected the youngster to disgraceful acts of cruelty.

His victim suffered a series of disturbing injuries as well as significant emotional abuse at the hands of the disgraced PC.

Now Hamilton, who has since resigned from the force, has been warned he is likely to go to prison when he is sentenced next month for his horrifying crimes.

A court heard the child suffered burns to its hands and bruising.

And in a sickening twist, Hamilton left the victim distraught and in tears after making a video in which he forced the youngster to say hurtful things about its family members. The court was told the young child was left so stressed by the ordeal, chunks of its hair fell out.

Now, after Hamilton admitted child cruelty, a judge warned the disgraced officer to prepare for prison.

Judge Penny Moreland, at Newcastle Crown Court, adjourned sentence until next month for pre-sentence reports to be compiled, the Chronicle reports.

But she told Hamilton: “The fact I’m directing a pre-sentence report and granting you bail ought not to be taken as any indication of the ultimate sentence.

“The most likely outcome is an immediate custodial sentence.”

Hamilton, 38, of King Oswald Drive, Blaydon, Gateshead, pleaded guilty to cruelty to a person under 16 by willfully ill-treating them in a manner likely to cause suffering or injury.

A charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm on the child was left to lie on file.

He pleaded guilty to cruelty on the basis he didn’t cause the injuries but should have prevented them.

The youngster suffered burns to its hands while trying to wash.

It also suffered bruising to its genitals from a toilet seat and bruising to its face from a swing.

Hamilton also accepted subjecting the child to cruel emotional abuse.

He videoed the child on at least four occasions, subjecting it to an interrogation and reducing it to tears and obvious distress.

Hamilton also made the youngster say its dad doesn’t love the child and that its dad hates the child.

Prosecutor Amanda Rippon told the court: “The Crown’s case is the cruelty encompassed the emotional cruelty and the lack of supervision which resulted in a number of injuries.

“The defendant also accepts the video in which (the child) is distressed and crying.

“The other videos are of interrogation. There is a basis of plea and we will open the case on the basis that the hair could have fallen out by stress.

“There were other stresses but the defendant was one of them. There was patchy loss of the hair but he did not pull or cut out the hair.”

Hamilton was released on bail until his sentence hearing next month.

His barrister, Mark Kelly told the court Hamilton was under stress at the time of the offences. “There is quite a lot of background in terms of his emotional state at the time,” he said.

“He understands there may be an immediate custodial sentence but depending on the outcome of the pre-sentence report, I will make submissions about whether that sentence should be suspended.”